<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/hub_generated/template_assets/1/202012046126/1769454764774/template_footer-core-non-critical.min.css">

Marketing Against the Grain

Reverse-Engineer Any Competitor: 10 AI Prompts for Market Research

Traditional market research requires expensive consultants, weeks of analysis, and budgets in the tens of thousands—but Manus + SimilarWeb collapses that into minutes and dollars.

Explore HubSpot's AI-Powered Marketing Software, designed to help you attract, convert, and engage high-intent visitors.

These 10 prompts give you Kipp and Kieran's exact workflows for generating McKinsey-level competitive intelligence reports, reverse-engineering competitor ad budgets, and transforming raw data into board-ready presentations—the same analysis that would cost $50K+ from a consulting firm now costs under $20 per query.

First, what is Manus?

Manus is an AI agent platform recently acquired by Meta that acts as an autonomous research analyst, capable of gathering data, conducting analysis, creating visualizations, and even generating functional website designs—all in a single conversational thread. Unlike ChatGPT or Claude that require you to manually gather data and switch between tools, Manus operates as an aggregator agent that automatically selects the best AI models for each task and can access external data sources like SimilarWeb's comprehensive marketing intelligence database. This integration gives marketers access to traffic metrics, channel breakdowns, competitive intelligence, and audience data that previously required expensive consulting firms or weeks of manual research—now delivered in minutes through simple prompts.

Expert Insights from Kipp & Kieran

Before diving into the prompts, here are the critical insights from Kipp and Kieran's exploration of Manus + SimilarWeb integration—the combination they're calling "the world's best market research agent for marketers."

What used to require expensive consultants, weeks of analysis, and tens of thousands of dollars can now be done in minutes for $5-20 per query. While these prompts are "expensive" by AI standards, they're dramatically cheaper than traditional market research that would cost thousands and take weeks to deliver comparable insights.

The best AI isn't the smartest model—it's the AI with the most context. Manus with SimilarWeb integration exemplifies this: giving an AI agent access to comprehensive traffic data, channel breakdowns, and competitive metrics transforms generic analysis into actionable market intelligence that rivals McKinsey-level consulting work.

The power of aggregator agents like Manus is their ability to switch between modalities seamlessly. You can go from analyzing competitor data to generating strategic recommendations to designing homepage mockups—all without switching tools or losing context. This end-to-end capability accelerates decision-making from weeks to hours.

Raw data doesn't persuade stakeholders—visualizations do. Manus automatically creates charts, graphs, and even full presentation decks from analysis, making it easy to share insights with executives, boards, or teams. Pairing Manus output with NotebookLM takes this further, transforming reports into polished slide decks instantly.

The suggested follow-up questions from AI agents are rarely as valuable as what an experienced marketer would ask. The 10x value comes from knowing what questions to ask—like identifying counter-seasonal spend opportunities or reverse-engineering competitor budgets—not from blindly following AI suggestions.

Kipp & Kieran's Market Research Playbook

Here's the systematic approach Kipp and Kieran use with Manus + SimilarWeb to uncover competitive advantages and make smarter marketing decisions—the exact workflows they demonstrated that generated McKinsey-level reports and actionable strategic insights.

What it does: Generate comprehensive competitive analysis reports that break down a competitor's entire digital marketing strategy—traffic sources, audience profile, SEO approach, paid strategy, and strategic recommendations.

 

When to use it: When you need to deeply understand a competitor's playbook, prepare for board presentations, inform strategic planning, or educate your team on the competitive landscape.

 

What you get: Full PDF report with traffic analysis, channel breakdowns, audience intelligence, strategic insights, and actionable recommendations (like Kieran's HubSpot report).

What it does: Reverse-engineer competitor advertising budgets by analyzing their paid traffic sources and applying industry cost benchmarks to estimate total spend and channel allocation.


When to use it: When determining your own marketing budget, justifying spend to leadership, understanding competitive intensity, or identifying where competitors are investing heavily vs. lightly.


What you get: Estimated budgets by competitor, channel-by-channel breakdowns, strategic insights about approach (aggressive vs. conservative), and benchmarking context (like Kipp's Monday/Salesforce/HubSpot analysis).

What it does: Analyze top industry spenders to identify peak and trough months for advertising activity, revealing counter-seasonal opportunities where costs are 20-25% lower.

 

When to use it: When planning annual marketing budgets, optimizing spend timing, finding arbitrage opportunities, or avoiding peak competition periods.

 

What you get: Peak vs. trough month identification, spend pattern explanations, cost savings opportunities, data visualizations, and strategic timing recommendations (like Kieran's fintech analysis).

What it does: Identify the fastest-growing companies in your industry, analyze what's driving their growth, and extract actionable playbooks you can apply to your own marketing.


When to use it: When looking for proven growth strategies, planning new channel experiments, benchmarking performance, or identifying emerging trends before competitors.

 

What you get: Top growing companies list with growth metrics, analysis of their strategies (PLG, SEO, paid channels), actionable playbooks, and recommendations (like Kipp's SaaS growth analysis).

What it does: Take competitive insights and immediately apply them by generating website designs, landing page mockups, or creative concepts based on what's working for top performers.

 

When to use it: When you want to quickly test ideas informed by competitive research, create data-backed design proposals, or move from insights to execution without switching tools.

 

What you get: Functional webpage mockups with copy, graphics, and code—going from "here's what competitors do well" to "here's how we apply it" (like Kipp's HubSpot homepage redesigns).

How to Use These Prompts

These 10 prompts are designed to help you execute the exact research workflows Kipp and Kieran demonstrated—from competitive intelligence reports to budget analysis to strategic recommendations. Each prompt includes bracketed fields for you to customize based on your specific needs.


Key Tips:

  • These prompts consume significant credits ($5-20+ per query) but deliver thousands of dollars of consulting-level value

  • Use Manus for the analysis, then export to NotebookLM for presentation generation

  • The more specific you are about your goals and context, the better the insights

  • Your expertise determines the value—know what questions to ask beyond AI's suggestions

  • Save successful outputs as templates for recurring analysis

 

*Credit Cost Management: While these analyses are expensive by AI standards, they're dramatically cheaper than alternatives. A single competitive intelligence report from a consulting firm costs $10K-50K+. These prompts deliver comparable insights for under $20.

10 Prompts for Competitive Intelligence

Use Case: Generate McKinsey-level competitive analysis reports breaking down a competitor's complete digital marketing strategy with SimilarWeb data.

 

Prompt:

Using data from SimilarWeb, create a comprehensive consultant-grade competitive intelligence report on [COMPETITOR COMPANY NAME/WEBSITE]. This report is for a CMO audience and should provide deep insights into their digital marketing strategy, performance trends, and strategic recommendations.

## Report Requirements

**Section 1: Executive Summary**
- Company overview and market position
- Key findings (top 3-5 insights)
- Strategic implications
- Critical recommendations

**Section 2: Traffic & Audience Intelligence**
Analyze and present:
- Total traffic volume and trends (last 12 months)
- Traffic growth rate and seasonality patterns
- Unique visitors vs. total visits
- Bounce rate and engagement metrics
- Global ranking and industry ranking
- Geographic distribution (top 10 countries)
- Audience demographics (if available)

Include data visualizations: trend charts, geographic breakdowns, seasonality graphs.

**Section 3: Traffic Source Breakdown**
Detailed analysis of:
- Channel mix (Direct, Search, Social, Referral, Paid, Email, Display)
- Channel-by-channel performance and trends
- Search traffic breakdown (organic vs. paid)
- Top referring domains
- Social media traffic sources
- Display advertising presence

Include visualization: channel mix pie chart, trend lines by channel.

**Section 4: SEO Strategy Analysis**
Examine:
- Organic search traffic volume and trends
- Top organic keywords (if available)
- Content strategy patterns
- Domain authority indicators
- SEO performance trends
- Keyword targeting approach

**Section 5: Paid Advertising Intelligence**
Analyze:
- Paid search traffic volume
- Paid social traffic
- Display advertising traffic
- Estimated paid channel investment
- Ad strategy insights (aggressive vs. conservative)
- Channel allocation priorities

**Section 6: Referral & Partnership Ecosystem**
Identify:
- Top 10 referring domains
- Partnership and affiliate patterns
- PR and media coverage
- Integration ecosystem
- Community and forum presence

**Section 7: Strategic Recommendations**
Based on all analysis, provide:
- Top 5 actionable insights for competing against this company
- Channel opportunities they're not exploiting
- Weaknesses in their approach
- Areas where they're winning and why
- Recommended strategic responses

## Formatting Requirements
- Create as a professional PDF report
- Include data visualizations and charts
- Use clear section headers
- Add executive summary at beginning
- Provide source citations for data points
- Make it board-presentation ready

## Deliverables
1. Complete competitive intelligence report (PDF)
2. Key data visualizations
3. Strategic recommendations summary
4. Data export (CSV) for further analysis

 

Use Case: Reverse-engineer competitor advertising budgets by analyzing paid traffic sources and applying industry cost benchmarks—answering the critical questions of how much competitors spend and where.

 

Prompt:

Look at the paid traffic sources found on SimilarWeb for [LIST 3-5 COMPETITOR COMPANY NAMES/WEBSITES]. Break down their traffic and sources, then use cost benchmarks for those channels to estimate the direct response advertising budget for each company.

## Analysis Requirements

**Step 1: Paid Traffic Collection**
For each competitor, gather:
- Total paid search traffic
- Paid social traffic (by platform if available)
- Display advertising traffic
- Other paid channel traffic
- Paid traffic as % of total traffic

**Step 2: Channel-Specific Breakdown**
Detail traffic by:
- Google Ads (search)
- Facebook/Instagram Ads
- LinkedIn Ads
- Display networks
- YouTube Ads
- Other paid channels

**Step 3: Cost Benchmark Research**
Find current industry benchmarks for:
- CPC for paid search in [INDUSTRY]
- CPM for display advertising
- CPC/CPM for social platforms
- Regional cost variations if applicable

**Step 4: Budget Calculation**
For each competitor, estimate:
- Total monthly paid traffic volume
- Cost per channel using benchmarks
- Total estimated monthly ad spend
- Total estimated annual ad spend
- Confidence level in estimate (High/Medium/Low based on data quality)

**Step 5: Strategic Analysis**
Compare competitors on:
- Spend level (Aggressive/Moderate/Conservative)
- Channel allocation strategy
- Paid search vs. paid social focus
- Brand-focused vs. direct response approach
- Changes in spend patterns over time

## Deliverables

Present findings as:

1. **Budget Comparison Table**
   - Competitor | Estimated Monthly Spend | Estimated Annual Spend | Primary Channels | Strategy Type

2. **Channel Allocation Breakdown** (for each competitor)
   - % of budget by channel
   - Estimated $ by channel
   - Strategic insights

3. **Key Findings Summary**
   - Who spends most aggressively
   - Channel preference patterns
   - Strategic approach differences
   - Implications for your budget planning

4. **Benchmarking Context**
   - How your current spend compares
   - Recommended budget adjustments
   - Channel reallocation opportunities

Include data visualizations showing budget comparisons and channel allocations.

Use Case: Identify peak and trough spending months in your industry to find arbitrage opportunities where advertising costs are 20-25% lower due to reduced competition.

 

Prompt:

Analyze the top 10 biggest spenders in [INDUSTRY] using SimilarWeb data. Identify their peak spending months and trough spending months to reveal counter-seasonal opportunities for more cost-effective advertising.

## Analysis Requirements

**Step 1: Industry Leader Identification**
Identify the top 10 companies in [INDUSTRY] by:
- Total paid traffic volume
- Market presence
- Advertising intensity
- Competitive significance

**Step 2: Monthly Spend Pattern Analysis**
For each of the top 10 companies, analyze:
- Paid traffic volume by month (last 12 months)
- Month-over-month changes
- Seasonal patterns
- Spending peaks and troughs

**Step 3: Aggregate Industry Patterns**
Combine data across all 10 companies:
- **Peak Months:** When do most companies increase spend?
- **Trough Months:** When do most companies decrease spend?
- **Average Spend Levels:** Baseline spending across the year
- **Volatility Analysis:** Which companies are consistent vs. seasonal

**Step 4: Explain the Patterns**
For peak and trough months, identify:
- Why companies spend more in peak months (e.g., tax season for Intuit, holiday shopping, fiscal year-end)
- Why companies spend less in trough months (e.g., post-holiday, summer slowdown)
- Industry-specific factors driving seasonality
- Economic or market events influencing patterns

**Step 5: Strategic Recommendations**
Provide actionable insights:

**Counter-Cycle Opportunities:**
- Which trough months offer best ROI potential
- Estimated cost savings (% reduction from peak pricing)
- Which channels benefit most from counter-seasonal timing
- Risks of counter-seasonal approach

**Budget Optimization:**
- When to increase spend (trough months)
- When to reduce spend or shift to organic (peak months)
- Annual budget allocation by month
- Expected efficiency gains

**Competitive Positioning:**
- Months where you can outspend competitors cost-effectively
- Periods where fighting for share is most expensive
- Long-term implications of counter-seasonal strategy

## Deliverables

1. **Top 10 Spenders Analysis**
   - Company list with spend patterns
   - Individual seasonality profiles
   - Strategic approach classification

2. **Peak vs. Trough Month Identification**
   - Peak months with reasoning
   - Trough months with reasoning
   - Month-by-month spend index (100 = average)

3. **Seasonal Spend Visualization**
   - Chart showing aggregate industry spending by month
   - Individual company trend lines
   - Peak/trough highlighting

4. **Strategic Recommendations**
   - Counter-seasonal budget plan
   - Expected cost savings (20-25% or specific %)
   - Monthly allocation recommendations
   - Risk assessment

5. **Implementation Guide**
   - When to shift budgets
   - Which channels to prioritize in trough months
   - How to measure success
   - Monitoring plan for ongoing optimization

Format as an actionable strategic planning document with clear visualizations and month-by-month guidance.

Use Case: Identify the top fastest-growing websites in your industry and extract their growth playbooks to inform your own marketing strategy.


Prompt:

Using SimilarWeb data, identify the top 10 [INDUSTRY] websites by traffic growth rate (not total traffic—growth rate). Analyze what's driving their growth and create actionable playbooks I can apply to my own marketing.

## Search Parameters
- Industry: [SPECIFY INDUSTRY - e.g., SaaS, E-commerce, Fintech, etc.]
- Time period: [Last 12 months / Last 6 months]
- Minimum traffic threshold: [Optional - e.g., at least 100K monthly visits]
- Geographic focus: [Global / Specific region]

## Analysis Framework

**Step 1: Growth Leaders Identification**
Find top 10 companies by growth rate and provide:
- Company name and website
- Current monthly traffic
- Growth rate (% increase)
- Traffic 12 months ago vs. now
- Industry category
- Brief company description

**Step 2: Growth Driver Analysis**
For each company, analyze:

**Traffic Source Mix:**
- Primary growth channel (what's driving the increase)
- Channel diversification level
- Emerging channel adoption
- Channel mix changes over time

**Strategic Patterns:**
- Product-led growth indicators
- Content marketing intensity
- Paid acquisition strategy
- Viral/organic growth signals
- Partnership/integration ecosystem

**Timing Factors:**
- Market timing advantages
- Post-pandemic normalization
- AI tool adoption trends
- Industry-specific tailwinds

**Step 3: Thematic Pattern Recognition**
Across all 10 companies, identify:
- Common growth strategies (what do winners share?)
- Channel preferences (where are they investing?)
- Content approaches (how are they attracting traffic?)
- Product positioning patterns
- Market timing insights

**Step 4: Playbook Extraction**
For the top 3-5 most relevant growth strategies, create:

**Playbook Name:** [e.g., "AI-Powered Tool SEO Strategy"]

**Who's Using It:** [Company examples]

**How It Works:**
- Core tactic description
- Channel/platform details
- Implementation requirements
- Why it's driving growth

**How to Apply It:**
- Specific actions to take
- Resource requirements
- Timeline to impact
- Success metrics

**Difficulty Level:** [Easy/Moderate/Hard]
**Potential Impact:** [High/Medium/Low]

## Deliverables

1. **Growth Leaders List** with metrics and context
2. **Individual Company Profiles** (top 10) with growth driver analysis
3. **Thematic Insights Summary** (patterns across winners)
4. **Actionable Growth Playbooks** (3-5 strategies to implement)
5. **Priority Recommendations** (which playbooks to try first)
6. **Competitive Positioning** (where you stand vs. these growth leaders)

Include visualizations showing growth trajectories, channel mix comparisons, and strategy patterns.

Use Case: Break down exactly where a competitor's traffic comes from, how each channel performs, and what their channel strategy reveals about priorities and effectiveness.

 

Prompt:

Using SimilarWeb data for [COMPETITOR WEBSITE], provide a comprehensive breakdown of their traffic sources with performance metrics, strategic insights, and recommendations for how I can compete in each channel.

## Company Context
- Competitor: [COMPANY NAME]
- Your company: [YOUR COMPANY NAME]
- Industry: [INDUSTRY]
- What you want to learn: [Specific focus - e.g., their SEO strategy, paid approach, referral network]

## Traffic Source Analysis

**Overall Traffic Profile:**
- Total monthly visits
- Traffic trend (growing/declining/flat)
- Bounce rate and engagement
- Visit duration
- Pages per visit

**Channel-by-Channel Breakdown:**

For each major channel, provide:

**1. Direct Traffic**
- Volume and % of total
- Trend over time
- What this indicates (brand strength, customer retention, etc.)

**2. Organic Search**
- Volume and % of total
- Trend over time
- Top organic keywords (if available)
- Content strategy insights
- SEO strength indicators

**3. Paid Search**
- Volume and % of total
- Trend over time
- Investment level (heavy/moderate/light)
- Strategic focus (brand vs. non-brand)

**4. Social Media**
- Total social traffic volume
- Breakdown by platform (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.)
- Which platforms they prioritize
- Social strategy insights

**5. Referrals**
- Total referral traffic volume
- Top 10 referring domains
- Partnership/affiliate patterns
- PR and media coverage
- Community presence (Reddit, forums, etc.)

**6. Email**
- Email traffic volume (if measurable)
- Email marketing intensity
- Trends over time

**7. Display Advertising**
- Display traffic volume
- Retargeting indicators
- Display strategy insights

## Competitive Intelligence Insights

**Strategic Priorities:**
Based on channel mix, what are their marketing priorities?
- What they invest heavily in
- What they underutilize
- How strategy has shifted over time
- Resource allocation patterns

**Strengths:**
- Channels where they dominate
- Sustainable advantages
- Effective tactics to learn from

**Weaknesses:**
- Channels they're underutilizing
- Declining performance areas
- Opportunities for you to compete

**Your Competitive Response:**
- Channels where you can compete head-to-head
- Channels where you should avoid them
- Underutilized channels you should exploit
- Differentiated channel strategies

## Deliverables

1. **Traffic Source Summary Table**
   - Channel | Volume | % of Total | Trend | Strategic Insight

2. **Channel Performance Visualizations**
   - Pie chart of channel mix
   - Trend lines for each major channel
   - Growth/decline indicators

3. **Top Referral Sources List** with context
4. **Channel Strategy Assessment** (what their mix reveals)
5. **Competitive Response Plan** (where/how to compete)
6. **Opportunity Identification** (gaps they're leaving open)

Format as a detailed channel intelligence report with clear strategic implications.

Use Case: Compare your website's traffic metrics, engagement, and channel performance against competitors to identify gaps and optimization opportunities.


Prompt:

Using SimilarWeb data, compare [YOUR WEBSITE] against [LIST 2-4 COMPETITOR WEBSITES]. Identify performance gaps, channel advantages/disadvantages, and provide specific recommendations to improve our website's performance.

## Analysis Focus
- Primary goal: [Traffic growth / Engagement improvement / Channel optimization / Conversion improvement]
- Key metrics to prioritize: [Specify if you have particular concerns]
- Time period: [Last 12 months / Last 6 months / Last 3 months]

## Comparative Analysis Framework

**Traffic Metrics Comparison:**

Create comparison table:
| Metric | Your Site | Competitor 1 | Competitor 2 | Competitor 3 | Your Ranking | Gap Analysis |

Include:
- Total monthly visits
- Unique visitors
- Visits per visitor
- Bounce rate
- Average visit duration
- Pages per visit
- Traffic growth rate (YoY)

**Channel Mix Comparison:**

For each competitor and your site:
- Direct traffic %
- Organic search %
- Paid search %
- Social %
- Referral %
- Email %
- Display %

**Engagement Quality Comparison:**
- Bounce rate ranking
- Time on site ranking
- Pages/visit ranking
- Return visitor patterns
- Engagement trend over time

## Gap Identification

**Traffic Volume Gaps:**
- Where competitors have significantly more traffic
- Scale advantages they possess
- Growth rate comparison (are they growing faster?)

**Engagement Gaps:**
- Where competitors have better engagement metrics
- What this reveals about content quality or user experience
- Specific improvement opportunities

**Channel Performance Gaps:**

For each channel where you're underperforming:
- Competitor's volume in this channel
- Your volume in this channel
- Gap size (absolute and relative)
- Why they're winning in this channel
- Estimated effort to close gap
- Potential traffic opportunity

**Channel Advantage Identification:**

For channels where you're winning:
- Your competitive advantage
- How to protect and expand this lead
- Risk of competitor catch-up

## Strategic Recommendations

**Quick Wins (30-60 days):**
- Immediate optimizations based on gaps
- Low-effort, high-impact improvements
- Specific tactical changes

**Strategic Initiatives (60-180 days):**
- Channel investments needed
- Content or product changes
- Partnership opportunities
- Technical improvements

**Competitive Positioning:**
- Where to compete head-to-head
- Where to differentiate/avoid
- Underutilized opportunities
- Sustainable advantage building

## Deliverables

1. **Performance Scorecard** (your ranking across key metrics)
2. **Detailed Comparison Tables** (all metrics)
3. **Gap Analysis** with prioritized opportunities
4. **Channel Strategy Recommendations** (where to invest/divest)
5. **30-60-90 Day Action Plan** with specific improvements
6. **Data Visualizations** (comparison charts, gap analyses)

Format as a performance audit with clear prioritization and action steps.

Use Case: Analyze top-performing competitors, extract their winning strategies, then generate website design mockups that incorporate those learnings into your own site.

 

Prompt:

Using SimilarWeb data, analyze [LIST 3-5 TOP PERFORMING COMPETITOR WEBSITES] to extract their growth strategies. Then generate [NUMBER] homepage design mockups for [YOUR WEBSITE] that incorporate the most effective elements and strategies you identified.

## Research Phase

**Competitor Analysis:**
For each competitor, identify:
- Traffic volume and growth rate
- Primary traffic sources (what's working)
- Engagement metrics (bounce rate, time on site)
- Conversion indicators
- Content strategy patterns
- Value proposition positioning
- Homepage structure and key elements

**Pattern Extraction:**
Across all competitors, identify:
- Common homepage elements among top performers
- Unique approaches that correlate with growth
- Call-to-action patterns
- Trust indicator usage (social proof, logos, stats)
- Content hierarchy preferences
- Mobile optimization approaches

## Strategic Insights

**What Top Performers Do:**
- Value proposition clarity
- Customer proof integration
- Feature/benefit presentation
- Navigation structure
- Conversion path design
- Trust building elements

**Differentiation Opportunities:**
- What competitors aren't doing
- Gaps in messaging or positioning
- Underutilized elements
- Unique angles to explore

## Design Generation Phase

**Design Requirements:**
- Number of mockup variations: [SPECIFY 2-5]
- Design style: [Modern/Clean/Bold/Minimal/etc.]
- Primary goal: [Lead generation/Product signup/Brand awareness]
- Key messages to include: [YOUR CORE VALUE PROPS]
- Must-have elements: [CTAs, features, social proof, etc.]

**For Each Design Mockup:**

Create a functional webpage design including:
- Hero section with headline, subheadline, primary CTA
- Value proposition section
- Feature highlights or benefits
- Social proof (customer logos, testimonials, stats)
- Secondary CTA
- Trust indicators
- Navigation structure
- Mobile-responsive layout

**Design Approach Variations:**

**Mockup 1:** [Focus - e.g., "Conversion-optimized based on Monday.com approach"]
- Strategy applied: [What you learned from competitor analysis]
- Key elements: [Specific features included]
- Differentiation: [How it stands out]

**Mockup 2:** [Focus - e.g., "Enterprise-focused based on Salesforce positioning"]
- Strategy applied: [Different competitive insight]
- Key elements: [Specific features included]
- Differentiation: [How it stands out]

**Mockup 3:** [Focus - e.g., "Product-led growth based on top SaaS winners"]
- Strategy applied: [Third strategic approach]
- Key elements: [Specific features included]
- Differentiation: [How it stands out]

## Deliverables

1. **Competitive Analysis Summary**
   - Key insights from each competitor
   - Pattern identification across top performers
   - Strategic recommendations extracted

2. **Design Mockups** (2-5 variations)
   - Fully coded, functional webpages
   - Responsive design
   - Copy included
   - Visual elements and graphics
   - Interactive elements (hover states, etc.)

3. **Design Rationale** (for each mockup)
   - Which competitive insights informed it
   - Strategic reasoning
   - Expected performance advantages
   - Implementation notes

4. **A/B Test Recommendations**
   - Which mockup to test first
   - Key elements to test
   - Success metrics
   - Testing timeline

Format as interactive webpage mockups with strategic context for each design approach.

Use Case: Create comprehensive market analysis reports showing industry trends, emerging players, and strategic opportunities using SimilarWeb data across multiple companies.


Prompt:

Using SimilarWeb data, create a comprehensive industry landscape report for [INDUSTRY]. Analyze the top 20-30 companies to identify trends, emerging patterns, and strategic opportunities.

## Industry Context
- Industry: [SPECIFY]
- Geographic focus: [Global / Specific region]
- Time period: [Last 12 months]
- Company size focus: [All / Enterprise / SMB / Startups]
- Specific sub-segments to analyze: [If applicable]

## Report Structure

**Section 1: Market Overview**
- Total industry traffic trends
- Growth rate across sector
- Market maturation indicators
- Competitive intensity assessment

**Section 2: Traffic Leaders Analysis**
Top 10 companies by total traffic:
- Ranking by traffic volume
- Market share estimates
- Traffic trends
- Dominant players vs. challengers

**Section 3: Growth Leaders Analysis**
Top 10 companies by growth rate:
- Ranking by growth %
- What's driving growth
- Emerging threats to established players
- New entrants gaining traction

**Section 4: Channel Trends**
Across the industry, analyze:
- Which channels are growing (SEO, paid, social, etc.)
- Which channels are declining
- Emerging channel adoption
- Channel effectiveness patterns

**Section 5: Strategic Patterns**
Identify common strategies among:
- Traffic leaders (what maintains dominance)
- Growth leaders (what drives rapid growth)
- Niche players (what creates defensible positions)

**Section 6: Opportunity Identification**
- Underutilized channels in the industry
- Content gaps across competitors
- Emerging trends to ride early
- White space opportunities

**Section 7: Threat Assessment**
- Fast-growing competitors to watch
- Disruptive approaches emerging
- Market shifts affecting everyone
- Competitive intensity changes

## Deliverables

1. **Executive Summary** (key findings and implications)
2. **Market Map** (visualizing competitive landscape)
3. **Traffic Leaders vs. Growth Leaders Comparison**
4. **Channel Trend Analysis** with visualizations
5. **Strategic Pattern Identification**
6. **Opportunity & Threat Matrix**
7. **Actionable Recommendations** (top 5-7 strategic moves)

Format as a professional industry report with data visualizations and strategic insights.

Use Case: Convert any Manus competitive intelligence report into a polished presentation deck with visualizations—perfect for stakeholder presentations, board meetings, or team education.


Prompt:  [USE THIS PROMPT IN NOTEBOOKLM AFTER UPLOADING YOUR MANUS REPORT]

Using the uploaded competitive intelligence report, create a comprehensive presentation deck suitable for executive stakeholders. Transform the analysis into a visual narrative with clear insights and actionable recommendations.

## Presentation Requirements

**Audience:** [CMO / Board of Directors / Marketing Team / Executive Leadership]
**Presentation goal:** [Inform strategy / Get budget approval / Educate team / Competitive briefing]
**Length:** [10-15 slides / 20-25 slides / 30+ slides for deep dive]
**Tone:** [Executive/Professional / Strategic / Educational]

## Slide Structure

**Opening Slides:**
1. Title slide with report topic
2. Executive summary (key findings in 3-5 bullets)
3. Agenda/what's covered

**Main Analysis Slides:**

For each major section of the report, create slides with:
- Clear headline stating the insight
- Supporting data visualization (chart, graph, table)
- 3-5 bullet points of key takeaways
- Strategic implication

**Key Slide Types to Include:**

**Competitive Overview:**
- Market positioning map
- Traffic comparison charts
- Growth rate comparisons
- Engagement metrics comparison

**Channel Analysis:**
- Channel mix pie charts
- Traffic source breakdowns
- Channel performance trends
- Competitor channel strategies

**Strategic Insights:**
- Strengths/weaknesses matrix
- Opportunity identification
- Threat assessment
- Competitive advantages highlighted

**Financial/Budget Insights:**
- Estimated spend comparisons
- Channel investment allocation
- ROI efficiency analysis
- Budget recommendation context

**Closing Slides:**
- Strategic recommendations summary (top 5-7 actions)
- 30-60-90 day roadmap
- Success metrics to track
- Next steps

## Design Specifications

**Visual Style:**
- Professional and clean
- Consistent color scheme
- Clear data visualizations
- Readable fonts and sizing
- Appropriate use of icons/graphics

**Data Visualization:**
- Charts for trends and comparisons
- Tables for detailed metrics
- Infographics for strategic frameworks
- Color-coding for emphasis

## Deliverables

1. Complete presentation deck (15-30 slides)
2. Visual hierarchy optimized for executive consumption
3. Talking points for each slide (optional)
4. Appendix with detailed data (optional)

Generate the presentation now.

Use Case: Set up a systematic approach to continuously track competitors, monitor industry changes, and generate regular intelligence reports without starting from scratch each time.


Prompt:

Design a competitive monitoring system using Manus + SimilarWeb that regularly tracks [LIST KEY COMPETITORS] and alerts me to significant changes, opportunities, and threats.

## Monitoring Scope
- Primary competitors to track: [LIST 3-5 COMPANIES]
- Secondary competitors: [LIST 2-3 COMPANIES]
- Industry: [INDUSTRY]
- Key metrics to monitor: [Traffic, channels, engagement, spend, rankings, etc.]
- Monitoring frequency: [Weekly / Bi-weekly / Monthly]

## Monitoring Framework

**Core Metrics Dashboard:**

Define what to track for each competitor:

**Traffic Metrics:**
- Total monthly visits (track % change)
- Unique visitors
- Traffic growth rate
- Bounce rate changes
- Engagement metric shifts

**Channel Performance:**
- Traffic by source (% mix changes)
- Emerging channel adoption
- Channel abandonment signals
- Paid spend indicators (increases/decreases)

**Competitive Position:**
- Ranking changes in industry
- Market share shifts
- New competitor emergence
- Traffic leader changes

**Alert Triggers:**

Set thresholds for notifications:
- Traffic increase/decrease >15% MoM
- New channel adoption (>5% of traffic)
- Major paid spend changes (>20% shift)
- Significant ranking changes
- New competitor entering top 10
- Unusual traffic spikes/drops

## Monitoring Query Templates

**Monthly Check-In Query:**
"Using SimilarWeb, provide updated traffic and channel data for [COMPETITOR LIST] covering [LAST MONTH]. Compare to previous month and highlight any changes >10% in any metric. Flag significant shifts and provide brief strategic implications."

**Quarterly Deep Dive Query:**
"Create a comprehensive competitive update report for [COMPETITOR LIST] analyzing the last 3 months of data. Include traffic trends, channel evolution, new strategic initiatives detected, and updated recommendations for our competitive response."

**Ad-Hoc Investigation Query:**
"[COMPETITOR NAME] just [ANNOUNCED SOMETHING / LAUNCHED SOMETHING]. Analyze their recent traffic and channel data to assess if this initiative is gaining traction and what implications it has for our strategy."

## Reporting Cadence

**Weekly Snapshot:**
- Quick metric check
- Alert triggers only (no report if no major changes)
- 5-minute review

**Monthly Report:**
- Full metrics update
- Month-over-month comparison
- Strategic insights
- Trend identification
- 30-minute review

**Quarterly Strategic Review:**
- Comprehensive analysis
- Strategic pattern recognition
- Competitive positioning update
- Roadmap adjustments
- Board/leadership presentation
- 2-hour deep dive

## System Implementation

**Setup Checklist:**
1. Define competitor list (primary and secondary)
2. Establish baseline metrics for all competitors
3. Set alert thresholds
4. Create monitoring query templates
5. Schedule monitoring cadence
6. Assign review responsibilities
7. Define escalation process for major findings

**Documentation:**
- Competitor profiles (who they are, what they do)
- Baseline metrics (starting point for comparisons)
- Alert criteria (when to flag changes)
- Query templates (copy-paste ready)
- Report templates (consistent formatting)

**Knowledge Building:**
- Maintain trend database
- Document strategic shifts
- Track your competitive responses
- Measure effectiveness of reactions

## Deliverables

1. **Monitoring System Design** (complete framework)
2. **Competitor Tracking Dashboard** (metrics to monitor)
3. **Query Template Library** (copy-paste ready prompts for different scenarios)
4. **Alert Criteria Definition** (thresholds and triggers)
5. **Reporting Calendar** (what to review when)
6. **Monthly Report Template** (consistent format)
7. **Quarterly Review Template** (strategic deep dive format)
8. **Setup Checklist** (implementation steps)

Format as an operational monitoring playbook with templates and schedules.

Final Notes on Using These Prompts

Credit Cost Awareness:
These Manus + SimilarWeb queries consume significant credits ($5-20+ per analysis). Budget accordingly and prioritize high-value research over exploratory queries. The cost is still dramatically lower than traditional market research but higher than standard AI prompting.


The Manus + NotebookLM Combo:
For maximum impact, use Manus for data analysis and research, then upload the output to NotebookLM to generate polished presentation decks. This two-step process transforms raw intelligence into stakeholder-ready materials in minutes.


Expertise Multiplies Value:
As Kipp emphasized, the suggested follow-up questions from AI aren't as valuable as what an experienced marketer would ask. Your domain expertise—knowing to look for counter-seasonal spend opportunities or traffic arbitrage—is what turns good data into great insights.


From Research to Execution:
The power of Manus is its ability to go from competitive analysis to strategic recommendations to actual design mockups in a single thread. Don't stop at research—push the agent to help you apply the insights immediately.


Context is Everything:
The best AI isn't the smartest model—it's the AI with the most context. Manus with SimilarWeb integration proves this: giving an agent access to comprehensive market data transforms generic analysis into competitive intelligence that rivals expensive consulting work.

 

Watch the full episode here: This AI Tool Works Like a $300,000 McKinsey Consultant

AI-Powered Marketing Software

Marketing software that helps you attract, convert, and engage high-intent visitors — powered by HubSpot’s AI.